Search

When people are confronted with research that contradicts their own personal experiences, they tend to deny the science. Using a secondary multinational data set collected during the early stages of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic (N = 46,490), we tested this "seeing is believing" effect as it relates to the link between direct and indirect personal experience with COVID‐19 and public health behaviors (PHBs) through COVID‐19 conspiracy beliefs and perceived risk of infection. Indirect experience with COVID‐19 was associated with lower endorsement of COVID‐19 conspiracy beliefs, which negatively predicted risk perception of infection, and, in turn, positively predicted PHBs. However, direct experience positively predicted COVID‐19 conspiracy beliefs, while it negatively predicted perceived risk. Moreover, while indirect experience positively predicted PHBs, direct experience largely negatively predicted PHBs. Implications of these findings as it relates to the "seeing is believing" effect are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mindfulness is a focused attention to and acceptance of present experiences. Although several reliable and valid multi-item measures of trait mindfulness exist, researchers may sometimes want a short and quick measure of mindfulness. In this project, we developed and validated the Single-Item Mindfulness Scale (SIMS) to assess trait mindfulness. We conducted eight studies involving 3,125 adult and adolescent participants. The studies consisted of cross-sectional, short longitudinal, and daily diary designs. We first developed the wording of the SIMS in Studies 1 and 2 and then examined the validity and reliability in Studies 3–8. The SIMS was found to be reliable and valid. It correlated with several multi-item measures of mindfulness at effect sizes in the medium to large range. It also correlated in expected ways with variables known to be related to existing multi-item measures of mindfulness such as self-compassion, anxiety, negative affect, positive affect, depression, neuroticism, empathy, prosocial behavior, and self-consciousness. Furthermore, it correlated positively with daily reports of mindfulness in a two-week diary study. Although existing multi-item trait mindfulness scales should be used, when possible, the SIMS is recommended in situations when time, question quantity, or researcher focus is constrained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Object relations theories emphasize the manner in which the salience/importance of implicit representations of self and other guide interpersonal functioning. Two studies and a pilot test (total N = 304) sought to model such representations. In dyadic contexts, the self is a 'you' and the other is a 'me', as verified in a pilot test. Study 1 then used a simple categorization task and found evidence for implicit self-importance: The pronoun 'you' was categorized more quickly and accurately when presented in a larger font size, whereas the pronoun 'me' was categorized more quickly and accurately when presented in a smaller font size. Study 2 showed that this pattern possesses value in understanding individual differences in interpersonal functioning. As predicted, arrogant people scored higher in implicit self-importance in the paradigm. Findings are discussed from the perspective of dyadic interpersonal dynamics. Keywords Object relations * Self * Other * Interpersonal * Implicit * Size * Metaphor, Freud (1920) conceptualized interpersonal tendencies in terms of stages of psychosexual fixation. Along these lines, he suggested that narcissistic individuals were fixated at a phallic stage of development, within which [...]